Feedback on Berkeley Unified School District Preschools

Welcome to Berkeley! Your inquiry is broad, really really broad.  I'll give you my perspective, but I'd highly recommend spending some time on this website in the "schools" and "BUSD" subsections.  You will find a lot of information from various parents over the years which will give you a flavor of the strengths and challenges of BUSD.

In answer to your questions, I don't have any experience with the public preschools so hopefully others will chime in on those.  My two kids are both in elementary school and we have been very pleased with their experiences thus far.  Their teachers (we have had 7 between them over the years) have all been very seasoned educators.  I have always felt welcome in the classroom.  Some teachers have had a regular volunteer schedule whereas others are open to a "come when you can" approach with parents.  All of my children's teachers have communicated regularly with parents, usually through a weekly email.  If I have had any concerns, I have always gotten a quick response via email.  I don't know how teachers are evaluated by our principal or the district.  The facilities are amazing, particularly for public schools.  Unlike my friends in other districts, we haven't been given a list of classroom supplies to bring in on the first day of school. The classrooms are well-stocked with books, paper, art supplies, etc.  Our school's PTA also gives our teachers a stipend each year to augment their supplies.  The students at our school have weekly art classes, dance class, theater class, gardening class and PE class with a PE instructor.  They go on plenty of educational field trips, such as to the CA Academy of Sciences, the Lawrence Hall of Sciences, Berkeley Art Museum and to see performances at Cal.  My kids' peer group is very diverse both ethnically and socio-economically and is reflective of Berkeley as a whole.  Overall my kids are having a fantastic educational experience. Sure, there are problems.  We have had issues with disruptive kids in the classroom as well as limitations in differentiated learning to accommodate the varied educational levels.  I truly feel, however, that the teachers and principal are up to tackling those challenges and that they are striving to deliver an excellent education to each student. As your child nears school age, you should come to one of the elementary school's kindergarten information nights (each school has one sometime in January).  Those presentations will give you a flavor of each school. 

BUSD is considered a desirable district to send your kids to. At every election, the city of Berkeley passes a bond measure to raise funds for the school- this funds music and arts and others.  At 3rd grade, students may choose a musical instrument to learn.  The district is divided into zones from in which families can rank their preferences for an elementary school. Then, by lottery, kids are matched with schools.  About 70% of families get their first choice.  Siblings are matched into the same school.  The result is that no school is better or worse off than others- all schools have the same proportion of socio-economically challenged families.  When I looked at the different elementary schools in our zone, they had a different flavor, but they seemed only to different in what their respective PTAs liked to focus on- one was into visual arts, another into sports, another into theatre arts.  We ended up choosing ours based on location (walking distance).  As for budget, in addition to the bond measures, our PTA tries to raise about $400/student per year, to pay or supplement other programming, like the garden, arts, music, and PE.  As for politics- I'm not sure what you mean.  As far as I understand, the district has adopted certain programs regarding bullying, conflict management, gender and racial diversity.  So on these issues, there's been some thinking to develop a uniform approach.  We've been very happy with our kindergarten teacher so far.  

PS- we have some experience with the pre-schools.  They're very, very nice. Very nice facilities, very well maintained.  We had our kid at Bright Horizons (corporate  day care ) which was ridiculously nice, and these facilities are comparable.  The pre-school teachers we've met are very, very good: caring, experienced, professional, knowledgeable.  The program is mainly for  low income  families, with a few slots for kids with IEPs, and a few slots of paying families.  There is child care, reserved for the  low income  families.  DM me for more deets if you like.

Welcome to Berkeley, Karina!

My son attended one of the Berkeley public preschools (and now attends a BUSD elementary), so I can answer your questions about them.

I am a low-income single parent, so public preschool was a lifesaver. My sense is that almost all of the families at his school income qualified for low- to no-cost preschool, and you also do not have to live in Berkeley to send your child to the BUSD public preschools. Each class generally has the state maximum of students (24) with three teachers. The teachers I met were all very caring individuals with a lot of teaching experience. That being said, it is definitely a standard, traditional public school experience. These are not like private, high-cost preschools with nature time and child-led play. Your child will eat some junk food from time to time, watch a Minions movie on a rainy day, and get their name written on the board if they act up. However, your child will also become accustomed to a diverse public school experience, and that is a huge bonus that I think outweighs everything else.

The public preschools offer before and/or after care for working families who need it, and although parents could of course drop by class or volunteer at any time, most/all of the families had working parents, so I never saw that happening. Special education teachers work with the classroom teachers to be on the lookout for possible learning disabilities, which means kids can get support earlier than at private preschools.

When considering public vs private preschool, I suggest that if the cost of private preschool is not a barrier then you should probably go that route, especially if you are looking at high-cost private preschools as a standard. If the cost of preschool seems unworkable, take a tour of one of the public preschools and check them out. Your child has to be at least 3 years old and potty-trained to apply; you can apply in June for the fall school year or just apply any time and be on the wait list for when a spot opens up. Your child will be in a vibrant, multicultural, multilingual school community which is about as instructive as anything else they could possibly learn.

Best wishes with your preschool journey!